Outdoors - Young Madison Arnold bags first deer

Saturday

Nov 2, 2013 at 8:05 PM

The 12-year-old took the shot at a range of 150 yards and placed it perfectly.

By Mike MarshSports@StarNewsOnline.com

Most North Carolina hunters start out at young ages, learning the arts and skills required for success from their fathers or other adult family members. Nevertheless, even in this day when women are warmly welcomed into the fields and forests, few of those young hunters are female. Fewer still will find the degree of success from the very beginning of their adventures as 12-year-old Madison Arnold of Fair Bluff.I was at the data collection center for the Farmers Manage Deer hunt on Friday, Oct. 25. The 85 participating hunters took 79 deer during the two weeks of hunting. Coordinator Guy Gardner was weighing and dressing deer while his wife (and other co-coordinator) Judy was writing down the statistics to provide to the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission. It was getting late and I was preparing to leave when I received a call from my guide for the hunt, Ricky Ward."Can you stick around for a few minutes?" Ricky asked. "A young lady just got her first deer and I think you might like to see it."A few minutes later, Ricky, Madison Arnold and her father, Mike, rolled up in pickups. On the tailgate was a big buck with some impressive antlers."It's a 10-pointer," Mike said. "They say if you can hang a ring on it, it's a point."Counting the projections showed it to have a big bump on one main beam that matched a point sticking up that could definitely hold a ring on the opposite side. Added to the other symmetrical eight points, everyone agreed it was a 10-pointer. The Arnolds were not participating in the Farmers Manage Deer hunt, but hunting on adjoining property where they have permission. Therefore, Madison was not restricted to harvesting antlerless deer. She had hurried home to hunt with her father just after she got out of Columbus Charter School."I missed a four-pointer earlier," Madison said. "I was shaking and cut my thumb on the side of the stand when I shot."Madison was using a Remington 700 bolt-action rifle chambered for the .270 Winchester, a man-sized cartridge that generates some pretty hefty recoil. Her father was not with her, but was sitting beside a nearby pond when he heard the shot. Mike drives a truck, so their hunting trips had been intermittent depending upon his work schedule."We hunt on about 2,100 acres," Mike said. "We shoot three does for every buck to try to keep the herd balanced. Madison had hunted the first day of the muzzleloader season and the second weekend of the muzzleloader season, then four days of the regular firearms season."After switching stands, the two were together overlooking a hayfield. Two does were in the field about 250 yards away and Madison said it was too far away for her to attempt a shot. She would have shot any deer that came within her comfortable range, buck or doe. One finally did. The big buck walked out of the brush and stood there, watching the does."We got in the stand about 4:30 and the buck came out at 6:30," Mike said. "She fired and he fell right there.""He looked big and I saw his antlers," Madison said. "I tried to shoot him in the heart."She took the shot at a range of 150 yards and placed it perfectly. When asked if any of her girlfriends hunted, she replied that her best friend also hunted deer, but had not taken a deer of that size."This buck is even bigger than any I've shot," Mike said. "I got an 8-pointer in Mississippi, but it's not that big. We are definitely going to have this one mounted."

To contact Mike Marsh or order his books, including "Fishing North Carolina," visit mikemarshoutdoors.com.